Do you work for a railroad?

Do you work for a railroad?

  • Yes, I work for an actual railroad.

    Votes: 7 30.4%

  • No, I love trains but only model them.

    Votes: 16 69.6%
  • Total voters
    23
YES,YESSSS - I'll confess ! PC/CR/NS, one year brakin' 32 as Fireman/hostler and Engineman. If my honey was a little older, I could be retired and working on trains FULL TIME !!! Bob C.
 
Well, I never worked for the railroad and alway's wanted to growing up until I found out about the whole not able to have a life thing, so I thrashed that idea. But in my early teen's I went down the street and on to a set of tracks behind the neighborhood. I hung out down there so much that I got to know the two crew's that worked that local switching job for KCS that they started letting me do thing's. Lining the switch when picking up empties and dropping off full load's of rock to be used for concrete. Then I got to start ridding on the side step's of the rear locomotive when coupling up to a cut. The first time scred me to death because it seemed much faster than so but we were only doing 4-5mph. Then about a year later is when I got to operate a locomotive for the first time. I think I was 13 or 14 then. A pair of SW1500's with 32 empty Herzog, Railgon and KCS gondola's. I about had a cow when they let me do that. Uncoupling the cut's but the hardest part sense I was smaller then than I am now was lining the switch stand. They showed me how to do it right because they said the way I was doing it could have gotten me hurt. They gave me crew pack's and water and I even got a hat out of it. That's the only thing close to work I ever did for the railroad. It was really more fun than work to me but when I got home out from under the sun when they were sitting wating on clearance to leave I would nap for a couple hours after getting rehydrated. I don't know if this cout's but it'll have to do. By the way, I'm not that old so it was only about 10 year's ago give or take because I'm 22 now.
 
Speaking of such. I finally gained seniority in something other than my job in the lawn business. I'm finally a senior member! I never thought I'd see the day for that so now I do have some railroad seniority. It's only good for model's, but hey, it works lol. :)
 
I'm supervisor of operations of a small shortline 30 miles up the Allegheny river from Pittsburgh. This means I do everything from trackwork to locomotive and car inspections and all the FRA paperwork. I have 2 part time employees along with about 10 really great volunteers. We do a scenic train as well as service a steel mill and a barge facility.
Charlie
 
Nope...flown planes all my adult life and watched the trains pass under me wondering where they were going on that steel road. The biggest benefit of flying is that you can see entire rail yards, switching facilities etc from a much higher vantage point and get an idea of how they're set up and why. Much like people admire big/fast/military/civilian planes for their power and performance, I admire the railroads for their ability to move heavy weight over vast distances in almost all weather and conditions.
 
Thanks Charlie! Nice website. I did a double take with the pictue of the train that magically transforms from passenger to frieght and back again. :) I like the line's color scheme.
Ralph
 
hello all---my father was a locomotive engineer on the canadian national and every once in a while he used to take my brothers and i to work with him ---we were never on the payroll,but at that time in my life i felt like i was working on the railroad and loved every minute

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Ralph said:
Thanks Charlie! Nice website. I did a double take with the pictue of the train that magically transforms from passenger to frieght and back again. :) I like the line's color scheme.
Ralph
Click to expand...
Dear Ralph
My wife does the website for us and she is pretty darned good at it I think. She doesn't assume people know something so she really tries to make it clear for them. I designed the color scheme and she designed the logo. She is also very proud of the morphed train image. I'll tell her you liked it.
Charlie
 
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